As
with all contracts, the employment contract may be terminated in a number
different ways, either with or without notice. Occasionally the contract
may come to an end by operation of law through being frustrated. Although all
such situations will lead to the contract being terminated, the circumstances
will be important in deciding whether or not the termination amounts to a
dismissal for statutory purposes. If it does amount to a dismissal, then the
employee may have certain other statutory remedies against the employer upon
termination of the contract, such as the right to claim unfair
dismissal, or an entitlement to a redundancy
payment. This will not, however, affect the termination of the contract.

TERMINATION WITH NOTICE

The
employment contract can be lawfully terminated by the employer or employer
giving the other party the notice required under the contract (provided this at
least equals the minimum notice requirements). Ordinarily the employment
contract will set out the notice required to be given in order to terminate the
contract. Often the contract will allow the employer to make a payment in lieu
of notice, and so terminate the contract immediately. The employment contract
will usually state that the notice must be in writing in order to be effective.
However, in the absence of this, there is no legal requirement for notice to be
in writing. Once notice has been given, then it may only be withdrawn by
agreement. Where the employment contract is terminated by the employer with
notice, then this will amount to a dismissal for statutory purposes. However,
where the employee resigns, then this will not amount to a dismissal, unless a
tribunal decides that the resignation was not in reality of the employee’s own
volition. If pressure has been applied on the employee to resign (for example,
where the employee is told to resign or else he will be dismissed) then it is
likely that this will be treated as a dismissal for statutory purposes.

Where
the contract is silent, then the courts will imply a reasonable period of
notice, depending upon the particular circumstances. Certain minimum periods of
notice are implied into employment contracts (see below), and clearly if the
contract is silent then the courts will not imply a notice period less than the
statutory minimum. However, longer notice periods may be implied depending upon
the specific circumstances. For example, the more senior the employee, the
longer the notice period that the courts are likely to imply.

MINIMUM
NOTICE REQUIREMENTS

The
ERA 1996 lays down certain minimum notice periods that are implied into all
employment contracts (section 86). The right to receive minimum notice applies
after an employee has been continuously employed for one month or more, and
therefore during the initial month of employment the notice period that
applies is a matter for agreement between employer and employee. It should be
noted that the rights to receive minimum notice do not apply in circumstances
where a party is entitled to terminate the contract without notice because of
the conduct of the other party (i.e. gross misconduct or constructive
dismissal). An employee’s minimum notice entitlements are as follows:

At
least 1 week’s notice when he has been continuously employed more than a
month but less than 2 years; and

1
week’s notice for each year of employment when he has been continuously
employed for more than 2 years, subject to a maximum entitlement of 12
weeks.

An
employee who has been continuously employed for more than a month is required
to give his employer at least 1 week’s notice.

Any
provision for shorter notice is ineffective and the higher limits will apply.
However, the parties are free to agree longer periods of notice if they choose
(and frequently do). Similarly, these provisions do not prevent a party from
waiving his right to minimum notice if he wishes, or from accepting a payment
in lieu of notice.

Temporary Workers

Where
an employee is employed under a contract for a specific period of 1 month or
less, but has been continuously employed for 3 months or more, then the
contract is deemed to take effect as if it were a contract for an indefinite
period, with the result that the minimum notice entitlements apply.

In addition, the minimum notice requirements do
not apply to a contract made for the purposes of the employee performing a
specific task or project which is not expected to last for more than 3 months,
unless the employee has actually been continuously employed for a period of
more than 3 months.

RIGHTS
OF EMPLOYEES DURING NOTICE PERIOD

The ERA 1996 (sections 87-91) provides that
during his statutory notice period the employee is entitled to be paid for
periods when he is:

ready and willing to work but no work is
provided for him by the employer;

incapable of work because of sickness or
injury;

absent from work wholly or partly because of
pregnancy or childbirth or on parental leave; or

on holiday leave.

The right applies to employees with at least 1
month’s continuous service, and it applies irrespective of who gave the
notice to terminate the contract. However, where the employee gave notice,
then the employer’s liability to pay the sums mentioned does not arise until
the contract actually terminates and the employee leaves. Any payments made by
the employer during the notice period in respect of sick pay, maternity pay or
holiday pay go towards reducing the employer’s liability.

It should be noted that there is an important
exception to this entitlement, and this is where the notice that the employer
is required to give to the employee is at least 1 week more than the minimum
notice period (section 87(4) ERA 1996). In this situation, the rights do not
apply. This can be important in cases of long-term sickness, where the
employee’s rights to statutory and company sick pay have been exhausted and
he is off work on no pay. Assuming that the contract has not been frustrated,
if the employer decides to dismiss, then even though the employee is no longer
receiving pay, he will be entitled to be paid during his notice period unless
the employer is required to give him at least 1 week more notice than the
statutory minimum.

Additional points to note

An
employee is not entitled to receive payment for periods when he is absent
from work on leave at his own request;

Similarly,
an employee is not entitled to receive payment if he is the one that gives
notice and then takes part in a strike;

If
during the notice period the employee acts in breach of contract entitling
the employer to dismiss him summarily, then no further payment is due to
the employee after the summary termination (i.e. the employee is not
entitled to receive payment for what would have been the balance of his
notice period);

If
an employer fails to give the required notice, then the employee is still
under a duty to mitigate his loss, but the payments that he should have
received under these provisions are taken into account in assessing the
employer’s liability.

TERMINATION WITHOUT NOTICE

BREACH
OF CONTRACT

In a number of situations, an employment
contract may be terminated without notice. The most common circumstances are
where either the employee or employer commits a serious (repudiatory)
breach of contract, entitling the other party to treat the contract as at an
end (and claim damages). In the case of the employee’s breach, this is known
as summary dismissal for gross misconduct; where the employer is in breach,
then this is known as constructive dismissal. However, there are other
situations where the employment contract may be terminated without notice,
such as where the parties agree to bring it to an end, or the law simply
treats it as frustrated by events beyond the control of either party.

It should be noted that the test as to whether
or not something is so serious as to entitle the other party to terminate the
contract is an objective one, to be determined by the court or tribunal

Summary
Dismissal

Summary
dismissal is where the employee is guilty of gross misconduct, entitling the
employer to dismiss without notice or a payment in lieu of notice. Gross
misconduct will typically include conduct such as theft, dishonesty, fraud and
acts of discrimination, as well as less tangible actions such as “bringing
the employer into disrepute”. In order to dismiss for gross misconduct, the
employer must act quickly. If the employer delays, then it is likely that it
will be treated as waiving the breach, and therefore lose the right to dismiss
without notice. As mentioned above, the test of whether or not conduct does
actually amount to gross misconduct is an objective one—it is a question of
fact and depends upon the circumstances of the case and the terms of the
contract. If the employer gets it wrong, and dismisses without notice when the
conduct does not amount to gross misconduct, then he will be liable for
wrongful dismissal.

Most
employers include within their employment contracts or disciplinary procedures
a non-exhaustive list of what they consider constitutes gross misconduct. This
may include statements such as “any conduct which brings the employer into
disrepute” as well conduct specific to that employment. For example, in a
paint factory where highly combustible materials are present, smoking anywhere
on the site may be stated to be gross misconduct.

The
ACAS code on Disciplinary Practice and Procedures in Employment specifically
provides that employees should know what standards of conduct are required of
them, particularly when it comes to gross misconduct.Paragraph 8 of the Code provides: “Employees should be made aware
of the likely consequences of breaking rules and, in particular, they should
be given a clear indication of the type of conduct which may warrant summary
dismissal”.

If the
contract was silent on what amounted to gross misconduct, then the law would
imply certain standards of conduct, as is the case with most other contracts.However, employers can go beyond what may be the position at common
law, and set out in the contract whatconduct may amount to gross
misconduct in the employment concerned.In
order to be able to dismiss for gross misconduct in these circumstances, the
requirements must be:

incorporated
into the contract of employment (i.e. either set out in the contract
itself, or contained within the disciplinary procedure); and

the
employee must, objectively, have breached the relevant term.

Clearly
the conduct in question must be serious, but employers should think about what
may be sensible to include within their disciplinary procedures.

Constructive
Dismissal

Constructive dismissal is effectively the
opposite of summary dismissal. Where the employer’s conduct is such that it
amounts to a repudiatory breach of contract, then the employee is entitled to
accept this breach by resigning and claiming damages from the employer. The
employer’s breach may involve an express term of the employment contract, or
it may, increasingly commonly, amount to a breach of the implied term of trust
and confidence. This is especially the case where, for example, the employee
suffers a significant loss of status. Although a one-off breach will, if
sufficiently serious, entitle the employee to resign and claim constructive
dismissal, so too may a series of more minor breaches, where the last in the
series amounts to the “final straw”.

As
with summary dismissal, in order to claim constructive dismissal the employee
must act quickly. How quickly depends upon the circumstances, but delay beyond
even a few days can mean that the employee is treated as affirming the
contract, thereby losing his right to claim constructive dismissal. This can
clearly put an employee in a very difficult position.

FRUSTRATION

A
contract will be frustrated where something unforeseen occurs, which is not
the fault of either party, which renders further performance of the employment
contract either impossible, or at least radically different from that which
was originally envisaged. In this case, then the contracts simply ends by
operation of law, and there is no dismissal. The most common examples of where
an employment contract may be frustrated arise in cases of long-term sickness,
serious injury and imprisonment. Courts and tribunals are, however,
understandably reluctant to treat employment contracts as frustrated,
particularly bearing in mind the unfortunate circumstances in which
frustration will normally arise. In particular, where a detailed disciplinary
procedure is in place that could have been used to deal with the particular
circumstances, then it is less likely that the contract will be treated as
being frustrated (as the eventuality has effectively been anticipated by the
parties).

It
should be emphasised that frustration occurs by operation of law, and
doesn’t require the intervention of either party. In the case of long-term
sickness, employers can get themselves into a muddle by continuing to keep
employees “on the books” for pension purposes, when all other rights to
remuneration have ceased (for example, where statutory and contractual sick
pay arrangements have been exhausted). This situation can be allowed to
continue for many years unchecked. If the employer then does take action and
purport to dismiss the employee, it can give rise to problems. If the contract
has not been frustrated, then the employee may be entitled to proper notice
and payment during the notice period, even if contractual remuneration ceased
long before (see above). If the contract has indeed been frustrated, then
there is no right to notice at all, as the contract has ended by operation of
law. Unfortunately employers who find themselves in this situation, whether
out of kindness or laziness, can end up following a half-way house that leads
them into difficulties by acting as if the contract is still effective, but
not following any proper procedures.It should also be borne in mind that issues of disability
discrimination may also arise which will need to be considered.

TERMINATION
BY AGREEMENT

As
with all contracts, it is, of course, open to the parties to bring it to an
end by mutual agreement. Provided that the agreement is genuinely mutual, then
it will be effective to terminate the employment contract and it will not
amount to a dismissal for the purposes of unfair dismissal and redundancy
payment purposes. However, precisely because of this, the courts are
understandably reluctant to find that this is the case. Under section 203(1)
of the ERA 1996, any provision in an agreement that attempts to exclude or
limit the rights granted by that Act, including the rights to claim unfair
dismissal or a redundancy payment, is void. The courts will therefore be keen
to find that what on the surface appears to be a mutual termination of the
employment contract is in reality a dismissal. In practice, it is perhaps
likely that the wish to “do a deal” and terminate the employment
relationship will relate to something that has occurred that leads the
employer to wish to terminate the contract. In these circumstances, it is
likely that the courts would hold the termination to be a dismissal. As a
result, it is very important for employers to be wary when reaching a
severance agreement with an employee. The preferable route is for such an
agreement to take the form of a compromise
agreement in order to ensure that all parties are adequately
protected.

TERMINATION
UPON EXPIRY OF A FIXED TERM AGREEMENT

Where
the employment contract is for a fixed term, then it will terminate
automatically when the fixed term expires. However, it should be borne in mind
that the expiry of a fixed term contract is treated as a dismissal for
statutory purposes.

WRITTEN
REASONS FOR DISMISSAL

Under
section 92 of the ERA 1996, an employee is entitled to a written statement of
reasons for dismissal where:

he
is dismissed with or without notice by his employer; or

he
is employed under a fixed term contract which expires and is not renewed by
his employer.

Except
in certain particular cases, an employee is only entitled to receive written
reasons for dismissal where he specifically requests one. The employer then has
14 days within which to provide the statement. The right to receive written
reasons only applies to employees who have at least 1 year’s continuous
service as at the effective date of termination.

The
exception relates an employee who is dismissed:

at
any time when she is pregnant; or

after
childbirth during her ordinary or additional maternity leave period.

In these
circumstances, no qualifying period applies, and an employee is entitled to a
written statement of reasons for dismissal automatically, without having to
request one.

It
should be borne in mind that a written statement of reasons for dismissal is
admissible in any subsequent proceedings, so employers do need to take care.

The
effective date of termination is the date when the notice expires (or would have
expired if proper notice had been given), the date when the contract terminates
where it is terminated without notice (i.e. summary dismissal), or the date on
which a fixed term contract that is not renewed expires.

Complaints to an employment tribunal

An
employee may present a complaint to an employment tribunal that (i) the employer
unreasonably failed to provide a written statement as required; or (ii) the
reasons given are inadequate or untrue. If the tribunal upholds the complaint
then it may make a declaration to this effect and must make an award that the
employer pays the employee an amount equal to 2 week’s pay. The employee must
present the complaint within 3 months of the effective date of termination, or
such later period as the tribunal considers reasonable where it is satisfied
that it was not reasonably practicable for the complaint to be presented within
the 3 month time limit.